Dancing Again After a Broken Foot & Torn Achilles Tendon

September 16, 2010, 2:43 pm By Dr. Labib

A few years ago, I treated a delightful young woman, Erin Weller, who broke her foot while rehearsing for a performance in a contemporary dance show. The show was being produced by Crossover Movement Arts, a dance company managed by her significant other, Blake Dalton. Erin’s injury was a simple fracture requiring no surgery—just a cast. Unfortunately, due to the injury she had to drop out of the show, but a few months later she was back to dancing and to studying martial arts with Blake.

Earlier this year, I saw Erin in my office again. She and Blake had recently married, and Erin was still dancing and studying martial arts. She was also working as a communications coordinator with Moving in the Spirit, an organization that teaches dance and life skills to at-risk youth. She was doing good work in the world.

While it was nice to see them both again, the reason for their visit wasn’t so nice. Blake had torn his Achilles tendon after landing badly from a high leap. A 12-year veteran professional dancer with Core Performance Company, a contemporary dance company in Atlanta, Blake makes his living through dance, and he had the kind of injury that could have once ended his career.

Fortunately, we’ve made great advances in the surgical repair of torn Achilles tendons. I was able to repair the tendon, and after a few months of working hard at his physical rehabilitation with our superb physical therapists, Blake recently started performing once again, just in time for the launch of Core’s 30th anniversary season.

Have a look at this video to meet this charming couple and learn more about how Emory Sports Medicine was able to help them get back on the dance floor:

2 Responses to “Dancing Again After a Broken Foot & Torn Achilles Tendon”

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Give yourself a healthy gift.

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